About Me

Proud homeschooling mom of 3 so far, Irish cradle Catholic, 3rd generation Red Sox fan, bookworm, and fitness video collector. I'm a New England Yankee at heart but have spent 10 of the past dozen years out here in Cali.

Our Family

DH: mycollege sweetheart and now husband of twelve years.Miss Scarlet: our oldest DD, age 9. She is in 5th grade and loves reading, creative writing, science, computer programming, drawing, and baking.Rusty, our DS, almost 7.He is in 1st grade and loves reading, science, history, drama, and anything mechanical.Princess Persimmon, ouryounger DD, who is 3 and loves getting into *everything!* She has autism and is currently attending a special day class.

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Saturday, July 7, 2007

The "Motu Proprio" on the Tridentine Mass is Out!

Catholic World News has published an English translation of Pope Benedict XVI's "Motu Proprio" on expanding the use of the 1962 Latin Mass and the accompanying letter to the Bishops. The documents confirm that the Novus Ordo Mass will continue to be the "Forma ordinaria" but that where parish members desire it and there is a priest trained to perform it, the Tridentine Mass should also be offered.

I was especially glad to see Pope Benedict XVI criticize in his letter to the bishops the liturgical abuse that has been occurring in some areas:

"in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually was understood as authorizing or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear. I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church."

Amen to that! I can remember growing up one parish priest we had who "condensed" the Mass such that it was over and done with in about 30 minutes. As a kid, I thought this was great because I did not understand, but now when I look back I am outraged. This was the same priest who supervised my First Holy Communion catechesis and told me that the Host was just "symbolic" of Christ's Body and did not require us children to go through Reconciliation prior to receiving our First Holy Communion. He was personally very nice but obviously his theology was pretty unorthodox!

Anyways, I am hopeful that this new "Motu Proprio" will result in the Tridentine Mass becoming available in my local area once again.UPDATE: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' webpage has posted a newsletter to explain the "Motu Proprio" to American Catholics.

I can't comment on whether or not that priest was misleading the first communion CCD kids, but I do remember his masses well, since I'm Crimson Wife's mom. He didn't leave parts of the Mass out to condense it -he just had sermons that ran about 2 minutes, and he spoke pretty quickly when he did the rest. He had particularly short masses in the summer, when the church was pretty hot, which was greatly appreciated by the folks in the pews. Plumrose

Short homilies are not a problem. I do, however, quite distinctly remember that when I attended a Mass given by a different priest there were parts in it that I had never heard Father M. say. So I am pretty confident that he did indeed skip some things.